112 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



We will try our experiment with them. Willy-nilly, 

 having conceived our well-intentioned idea, we will 

 make no further enquiry, we will assume there exists 

 nothing more in heaven or earth than exists in our 

 philosophy of fatuity, and in the midst of these honest 

 people we will plant our tares, the children of paupers, 

 ne'er-do-wells, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, hooli- 

 gans, drunkards, and those of vile and vicious 

 language and of reprehensible and indescribably 

 filthy conduct. From such an ancestry we shall, 

 with ratepayers' money and good environment, 

 rear a community of civic saints ! " These are noble 

 intentions, no doubt, and they are based on the 

 same sort of contention as that urged by Dr. Cobbett. 

 But let us leave the intentions, and come to the 

 results. They are the very reverse of what it was 

 intended they should be. In the citation of the 

 following facts I mil confine myself to the results of 

 personal knowledge and enquiry made in one of 

 these Western islands. I do so, because here my 

 enquiries and observations have been made 

 throughout a sufficiently extended period, of eight 

 months spread out over four years. 



The pauper children from Glasgow are boarded 

 out with the native crofters, who are paid from three 

 and sixpence to five shillings weekly for the main- 

 tenance of each child. This money is paid by the 

 Parish Council. The children are sent to the island 

 when quite young — some little more than infants 

 — and attend at the village school under the guardian- 

 ship of the crofter with whom they are boarded 



